Employee Relocation: How to Meet the Needs of The Global Professional

 

While fewer Americans are moving for work than ever before, international trade has done nothing to slow its growth. That means there are fewer candidates for the many jobs that require a global professional with an understand of business. If you’re looking to meet their needs within your organization, you need to give them all the resources they need.

Here are five ways for you to meet the needs of employees willing to relocate.

1. Offer Tools For International Trade

As your employees relocate around the globe, they need more support, not less. When you’re tasking them with being part of your expansion into new territory, you need to help them to assess gains and risks.

Market feasibility varies from country to country depending on your products and services. They need to know when it’s time to invest and when they could cut their losses and run to another market.

Your professionals have cut their teeth on a single market in all likelihood and you’ll need to give them the support they need to make the jump. Much of the knowledge they’ve acquired applies to their new situation but you need to help them understand how much of it doesn’t.t If a concept takes more than it offers to the bottom line, you need to help them understand.

The strategic direction of your company must be maintained with every decision they make.

2. Help Them With Market Expansion Planning

Your global business staff’s plan to reach into an international market must be detailed with all contingencies accounted for. The plan needs to be comprehensive. It should cover current market conditions with an eye to the future.

Your staff is going to need help to implement it. If you don’t assist them, they’re likely to fail and risk blowing the effort and the money you invested. Putting together a global initiative takes time and will require you to take significant risks with your budget.

There should be a comfortable feedback loop between you and your global business representatives. If your centralized in-house staff comes up with a plan, it might not be appropriate. Let your global rep tell you when it doesn’t work and why it doesn’t.

Risk management is vital to being able to expand into other markets. Any company can make a mark in global markets with an infinite budget, but if you want to be a savvy spender, you need to have a solid expansion plan.

3. Market Entry Strategy Requires Some Planning

Market entry is a surgical act for some startups and new businesses. If you’re not precise with how you enter a new market, you risk all sorts of missteps.

You could enter the market in a redundant way, being a new service or product in a crowded market where you can’t stand out. You could be offering something that more well-known brands already do better. Strategic partnerships make a difference because they can get your foot in the door.

You also need to run a general assessment of the new market you’re entering. You should look at market entry options for all kinds of products or services.

If your employees relocated to a new region to help you get a foothold in the market, you need to listen to what they have to say. Entering the market is expensive and difficult. Ensuring that your global professional walks into every meeting armed with information about the state of the market will win the trust of new partners.

4. Learning About International Sales and Marketing Makes a Difference

If you want your staff to be prepared for this new market, you need to help them to understand what the sales and marketing tactics of other international markets are. They need to know what important brands in that market have done to create demand. In order to profit, they require all the information and research you can muster on marketing to that region.

Every market has its own style, from the types of visuals that work in an industry to what copy needs to say. There are vernacular types of copy that work in some international markets while other types of products and services require a professional approach.

There should be lots of on the ground consulting being done. These services should provide information about how to fit the needs of the local market and the types of clients you’re seeking to contact.

While your company has surely amassed a lot of data about how to connect with regional markets in your home country, it’s harder to get that information abroad. There is some trial and error that needs to be done along with lots of research requiring a lot of time and money to compile.

5. They Should Be Trained on International Law

If you’re setting up your global professional to be trained as to how to sell and promote in a given region, you also need to teach them about laws. There are laws and ethics specific to every region that need to be followed.

While there are lots of details that are going to be hard to follow, your staff should be aware of the basics of law and what they need to avoid violating. International trade activities vary from country to country and the kinds of ethics that are promoted in American culture might not be welcome abroad. It’s vital to train your staff on what to avoid when they’re making ethical decisions about business.

You can’t expect your best global professionals to be trained in international law, but you should give them all the resources they need. This ensures they’ll have an intercultural competence as they go into deals. For more about what your staff needs to know, we’ve got a whitepaper and you should check it out!

A Global Professional Needs Support

Pitching for a company or a brand while abroad is challenging for even the best staffer. If you’re not able to give them adequate support during your expansion, even the best global professional is likely to fail.

To make sure your products get where they need to go, check out our guide to global logistics.